Five Years in Kaffirland (2 vols, first ed, 1848)

Mrs Ward's work was compiled from the journal she kept for the five years of the war and the subsequent peace. As the wife of a captain in the 91st Regiment, and she was accordingly well informed as well as being an experienced author. The book starts with her own history of the Cape from 1805, while the final chapter is contributed by the unnamed editor, who also relates how the Wards - officer, wife and child - were among the few survivors when their vessel sank on their approach to Cape Town in 1841.

Our set of this rare work is complete but unrestored and in its original binding - red cloth boards, blind embossed on all faces with gilt lettering to the spine; plain primrose endpapers; frontispieces to both volumes, the first with a tissue guard; map of the site of the war in Vol 1, which has xi + 306 pp of text + 24 pp of publisher's announcements. Vol 2: vii + 352 pp of text plus a 1-p publisher's announcement.

CONDITION. The corners are bumped, there is a tear at the top of the spine, the front endpapers are cracked with gauze visible, the back endpapers are more lightly cracked with no gauze visible, the binding of Vol 1 is shaken and the leaves of Vol have lost some of their flexibility, the frontispieces and the map are foxed but the rest of the text is unfoxed and also unmarked. There is the same faded owner's signature on the front free endpapers of both volumes.